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Tylenol-loaded mice dropped from air to control snakes
CNN ^ | September 7, 2010

Posted on 09/16/2010 3:46:26 PM PDT by billorites

Dead mice packed with acetaminophen, strapped to pieces of cardboard and dropped from helicopters may help control one of the big headaches for the Pacific island of Guam – the brown tree snake.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week began dropping the expired rodents packed with 80 mg of the generic equivalent of Tylenol on the forests of Naval Base Guam.

Since scientists discovered that the household pain reliever was deadly to the brown tree snakes, they’ve been trying to figure out how to get it to where many of the serpents live in the canopies of the island’s forests, according to a report in Stars & Stripes. The Tylenol-loaded mice are attached to two pieces of cardboard joined by paper streamers that snake exterminators hope will catch on tree branches, providing deadly snacks for snakes at those heights, according to the Stripes report.

The aerial attack on the tree snakes is designed to augment current trapping systems, which are placed around ports and airports to prevent the snakes from hitching rides to other Pacific islands such as Hawaii and causing the same ecological nightmares they’ve been responsible for on Guam.

"The brown tree snake traps that you see around Guam are actually the most effective trap for catching snakes in the world," USDA Assistant State Director Dan Vice told Guam Newswatch.

"Most of the traps that people see however are sitting on a fence or on a port. And they're targeting the few snakes that might get to that fence."

So the mouse bombs have begun falling on the jungle forests, where the USDA says there can be as many as 20 brown tree snakes per acre, one of the highest snake densities recorded anywhere in the world.

The USDA says brown tree snakes have wiped out...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.blogs.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Science
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To: billorites
Dead mice packed with acetaminophen, strapped to pieces of cardboard and ...

Then the brown snakes will carefully unstrap the dead mice and proceed to eat them.

Yep...the U.S. Government is definitely involved

41 posted on 09/16/2010 5:30:15 PM PDT by Outlaw Woman (Extremism in defense of Liberty is sometimes necessary...)
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To: nmh
They are already dead. Who comes up with this stuff...oh nevermind, it was our ingenious government (Tax Dollars at work).
42 posted on 09/16/2010 5:33:09 PM PDT by Outlaw Woman (Extremism in defense of Liberty is sometimes necessary...)
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To: AdmSmith; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; bigheadfred; blueyon; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; ...

The end result will be snake with really clear sinuses. Thanks billorites.


43 posted on 09/16/2010 7:07:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: justsaynomore
Only if all the snakes go to one end.

Yep, and then, according to at least one democrat, if the people go to the other end the Island will flip over and drown all the snakes/Kidding(just in case someone didn't realize I was joking around).

I take it these snakes are pretty deadly?

44 posted on 09/16/2010 7:25:03 PM PDT by calex59
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To: Outlaw Woman
Could we give some to Michele?

Doesn't she have headaches?

Besides there are more rodents than ever at the WH. This might keep those pesky rodents population down. Also has Obama been bathing lately? I don't see so many flies on his face. Third world countries are not noted for personal hygiene. Obama has a third world mentality as well as third world hygiene.

45 posted on 09/16/2010 8:02:32 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: billorites

They won’t eat dead rodents. They won’t recognize them as food.


46 posted on 09/16/2010 9:46:58 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The only stable state is one in which all men are equal before the law." -- Aristotle)
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To: OCCASparky

wELL, THAT VISUAL MADE ME LAUGH.


47 posted on 09/16/2010 9:51:20 PM PDT by patton (Obama has replaced "Res Publica" with "Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi.")
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To: nmh

If the snakes only eat live mice, they could outfit each mouse with a little parachute, that would look cute.


48 posted on 09/16/2010 9:52:27 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: rex regnum insanit

lol


49 posted on 09/16/2010 9:55:28 PM PDT by FourPeas (Pester not the geek, for the electrons are his friends.)
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To: billorites

I wonder what a snake trap looks like?


50 posted on 09/16/2010 9:58:12 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: billorites
Since scientists discovered that the household pain reliever was deadly to the brown tree snakes, they’ve been trying to figure out how to get it to where many of the serpents live in the canopies of the island’s forests...

Why not simply play 0bambi's speeches to the snakes on loudspeakers, then place the Tylenol where they can reach it?

Eliminate the middle-mouse, I always say.

51 posted on 09/16/2010 10:17:57 PM PDT by JRios1968 (The real first rule of Fight Club: don't invite Chuck Norris...EVER)
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To: SunkenCiv

The end result will be a complete disaster.


52 posted on 09/17/2010 4:07:55 AM PDT by TheOldLady (Pablo is very wily.)
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To: InABunkerUnderSF

Just catch it :^)


53 posted on 09/17/2010 7:52:54 AM PDT by RoadGumby (For God so loved the world)
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To: goat granny

Pet stores sell “pinks” which are frozen baby mice, as snake food. Why would I know this? Grandchildren.


54 posted on 09/17/2010 8:16:30 AM PDT by Judith Anne (Holy Mary, Mother of God, please pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.)
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To: Judith Anne

There are a few things we can learn from the younger generation....:O) yukky things of course....:O)


55 posted on 09/17/2010 12:02:05 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: Judith Anne

That in a nutshell is why I haven’t owned any snakes.

After finding an Eastern Kingsnake in the backyard I was considering trying to tame the next wild juvenile we ran into, as more than one of my snake owning friends got their starts that way (one at the tender age of three!), but having kept rodents as pets, I just couldn’t do it.


56 posted on 09/17/2010 2:57:13 PM PDT by Fire_on_High (Stupid should hurt.)
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To: patton
Well, that visual made me laugh.

Not so funny when you come back from a jog with cuts and abrasions from pecking, clawing birds.
57 posted on 09/17/2010 3:57:46 PM PDT by OCCASparky (Obama--Playing a West Wing fantasy in a '24' world.)
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To: OCCASparky

My 2nd kid whacked a flying squirrel with a tennis racket, once.

It landed on my face.

Needless to say, we had words...

I already have a beard. I don’t need to blow a squirell.


58 posted on 09/17/2010 7:24:26 PM PDT by patton (Obama has replaced "Res Publica" with "Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi.")
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